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Brookhaven tears down 200th abandoned house in blight fight

Tearing down the Coram house set a milestone in the town’s effort to get rid of vacant, dangerous zombie homes that have been left to deteriorate

Brookhaven Supervisor Edward P. Romaine and Councilmembers Jane Bonner and Neil Foley spoke about the demolition of the 200th "zombie house" in the town on Wednesday as the Coram structure was torn down.
(Credit: Ed Betz)

Brookhaven Town officials on Wednesday demolished the 200th vacant and abandoned home under an initiative to crack down on blight.

Officials said the house on Washington Carver Drive in Coram became badly deteriorated in recent years and town engineers deemed it unsafe.

Town Supervisor Edward P. Romaine used the milestone occasion to call on federal and state lawmakers to direct some of the hundreds of millions of dollars from bank settlements in recent years for foreclosure abuses and deceptive practices to creating a pilot program to help save the structures.

“Take some of the fine money and allow us to buy back some of these houses that are just sitting there falling apart,” Romaine said Wednesday. “Let us fix them up and give them to first-time home buyers and veterans.”

Romaine said some of the settlement money could be used to create a fund to refurbish homes in hopes of rescuing them.

“We obviously could resell the houses and the money would replace the money we get” from the settlement funds, Romaine said. “I’m not saying we could save every house, but one out of three we could.”

The Coram house was torn down under Chapter 73 of town code, which provides a fast track to ridding neighborhoods of unsafe structures.

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The property owner is responsible for demolition and debris removal costs, and the town plans to place a lien on the house, which will then be added to the tax bill.

Suffolk County will reimburse Brookhaven for the removal costs and collect the money from the homeowner, Romaine said.

“I don’t like tearing down anything that can be saved, but these houses are so bad that we’re left with no choice,” Romaine said, adding dilapidated homes negatively affect home values and quality of life.